PHIL 341 Assignment: Analysis of Ethical Perspectives in Arguments

This assignment involves identifying and explaining the ethical perspectives reflected in ten different arguments. The ethical perspectives considered are consequentialism, duty ethics/deontology, virtue ethics, and moral relativism. Each argument is analyzed to determine which ethical perspective it primarily reflects, with a brief explanation of why that perspective is the most appropriate fit. The arguments cover a range of topics, including free health care, character education, human sacrifice, same-sex marriage, and the use of atomic bombs, each analyzed through the lens of ethical theories. The assignment utilizes APA formatting and provides a clear understanding of how different ethical frameworks can be applied to real-world scenarios. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a variety of study resources and tools for students.

Running Head: ETHICS PERSPECTIVES 1
Course Name:
Name of the Student:
Institution Affiliation:

RUNNING HEAD: Ethical perspective
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1. Free health care should be available to all people. After all, if that were the case, it
would benefit everyone.
On my views this argument primarily reflect consequentialism ethical perspective in that
the action of free health care will bring more happiness than the alternative action and also the
action morally right. If you weigh the consequence of the free health care it will have a positive
impact to society and many individual, will enjoy the services. The action will promote our own
happiness than it will do to the alternatives.
2. Character education should be part of the public school system in the U.S. We
need to cultivate integrity in our children, and the public school system should play a role in this
important process.
According to my opinion the argument is reflect Deontology/Duty Ethics, ethical
perspective. We know that we are obligated to act with integrity in everything we undertake and
this is a universal rule (Donlevy & Walker, 2013). The morality of this action is right and is
grounded under a series of rules, so character education should be part and parcel of U.S public
school system. So we obligated to act according to the sets rules and regulations.
3. Although many societies have practiced human sacrifice, within the cultures of
those societies, human sacrifice wasn't considered wrong, even though we believe it is wrong in
our culture. So, human sacrifice within those cultures wasn't really wrong.
This primarily reflect Moral Relativism ethical perspective, since according that some
culture they believed in their cultural practices and their beliefs. So the belief sacrificing human
being is right although many human race believe that killing someone is not right decision and is

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morally wrong. When it comes to moral relativism, it does not reflect truths of universal morals
but instead do claims based on cultural historical, social and personal circumstances.
4. Same-sex marriage is right because the polls show that most Americans favor it,
even if that is not the case in other countries.
This also reflect moral relativism; according to some culture they believed in their
cultural beliefs. So the belief that same sex marriage is right, is based on personal decision and
circumstances. Although many human race believe that same sex marriage is morally wrong.
When it comes to moral relativism, it does not reflect truths of universal morals but instead do
claims based on cultural historical, social and personal circumstances.
5. The legalization of same-sex marriage is wrong because the government has no
right to legally sanction any form of personal relationship except one: marriage relationships
between a man and a woman. That is the only type of relationship that can lead to procreation,
and the state has a legitimate interest in procreation. Thus, the state has a duty to support
marriage between a man and a woman, and a duty to refrain from getting legally involved in
other types of relationships.
This basically reflect Duty Ethics/Deontology; because this clearly state that action
should morally base on whether action is wrong or right under sequence of rules and regulations
rather than grounded on action consequences. On above argument legalization of same sex
marriage is viewed as wrong since our universal interest legitimacy is human procreation and
there are sets rules to guide us.
6. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong because those
acts violated the right to life of many innocent people, and we should protect those rights.

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This primarily reflect Duty Ethics; because this explains that action should be based
morally on whether action is wrong or right in a series of rules and regulations rather than based
on action consequences. So here basically killing innocent people through atomic bomb is
against the law.
7. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was right because those
acts ended the war faster, and thus made the world a safer place.
This primarily reflect consequentialism ethical perspective because the consequence of
bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki lead the ending of war and made world to be peaceful; the
action brought more happiness to the people than it would alternatively, according to me it was
the right decision to make.
8. We need to do a background check and to collect some character references on
Mr. Jones before we hire him.
This reflects basically Virtue ethics; where we need to know traits of Mr. Jones before we
hire him. How does he behave to situation, is he upright and straight forward, can we trust him or
he is an irresponsible person? So here we need to get the real reputation of Mr. Jones before we
hire him, if don’t do so we might make wrong decision and hire a wrong person to work for us.
He must be a person who is physically and psychologically balanced.
9. He doesn't have the right character and temperament to be a state governor. He
has been involved in corruption scandals, he is known to be dishonest, and he has problems
controlling his anger.
This reflects on Virtue Ethics perspective; because we see someone character and get that
he has bad character traits as corrupt, dishonest and have a problem with controlling his anger.

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Through that, we get that the person in question is not fit to be the governor and as a leader we
expect him to have good qualities of leadership.
10. Sure, slavery is wrong in our society because we all agree it's wrong. But slavery
isn't absolutely wrong. Many societies have practiced slavery.
This reflect moral relativism; according to our society we believe that slavery is wrong
morally (Singer, (2011). The belief that slavery is wrong is based on personal decision and
circumstances. Although many societies have practice slavery, which is morally wrong. When it
comes to moral relativism, it does not reflect truths of universal morals but instead do claims
based on cultural historical, social and personal circumstances

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References
Donlevy, J. K., & Walker, K. D. (2013). Dancing on the Narrow Ridge: Superintendents'
Ethical Decision Making. Lulu. com.
Singer, P. (2011). Practical ethics. Cambridge university press.